


Twenty-five Years Later

by Xadhoom



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02
Genre: F/M, Major Original Character(s), epilogue-compliant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 02:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10890159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xadhoom/pseuds/Xadhoom
Summary: Or: What life is like for the Digidestined, come 2027.





	1. The arena

"The time has come, honored guests, for the eight-finals of the D1 Tournament," the announcer's voice rang out across the hall. "We now present to you, the winners of last tuesday's Open Double Battle Tournament. Give it up for Junko Ishida, Gabumon, Armadillomon, and Sarah Hida!"

Many of the people gathered looked towards the far-left side of the arena, where the four soon could be seen emerging.

Gabumon raised his paw in silent greeting to the crowds. Junko gave an uneasy smile, and a v-gesture to the people. Sarah simply grinned, her hands behind her head.

"And if y'all like seeing these rising stars of the Digimon battle circuit here today," continued the announcer, as a twenty-something man - garbed in a well-worn ensemble of jeans, a shirt and a vest - accompanied by a Patamon and a Tsukaimon, who sat on his broad shoulders - began to walk out of the entrance opposite theirs, "then you'll love seeing who's decided to join in!"

Cheering broke out among a good portion of the spectators, mixed with their names - Patamon, Tsukaimon, Yoshio Kinjo. The stubble-chinned man flashed a self-congratulatory smirk, studying the group of four while the cheering died down.

"Care to make the first move?" called the Patamon loudly to the foursome.

Sarah was quick to pull her D3 out of her pants-pocket, holding the circular device up. Junko's voice rang out first, "Hold on a sec,", and the brunette stopped right as she had called, 'Armadi-', to look at her friend.

"They've gotta be up to something," voiced Gabumon. "It just doesn't make sense they would let us DNA Digivolve in peace, unless they've got something big up their sleeves."

The messy-haired blonde frowned pensively for a moment. "You're right, so let's go for Shakkoumon this time," Gabumon didn't like the idea, but he saw the sense in it.

"Actually," hollered Yoshio sternly, his voice ringing clearly across the nearly-seventy-metre-wide area, "how about I resolve the issue? People came here to see battle, not your dithering strategizing."

The four of them looked in his direction, to see his partners on the field and his D3 in his raised hand. "Tsukaimon, Patamon, conduct Warp DNA Digivolution now!" he announced forcefully. "Let MegaAirdramon descend!"

Both Rookie mons began to fly upwards, an orange trail of light behind Patamon and a violet trail of light behind Tsukaimon. Almost six metres up, they smashed into one another. Then, they erupted into a miniature sun. When the light died down again, a red-scaled serpentine dragon was where they had been - ten metres long in body, a skull on its head, and great crimson wings spread to their widest.

"Ebonwumon," chuckled the DNA Ultimate, "you kids are screwed. But tell you what," they raised their voice, to assure themsself that they heard them, "since we've got a big crowd here, we should give them a good and proper spectacle. You have ten seconds to give us an Ultimate."

The two looked uncertainly at one, as did their partners.

"Let's just go for Shakkoumon," Gabumon was quick to say, openly nervous about the loud call of 'two' from the background. The Hida girl nodded, and turned her attention to the Digivice while Junko did the same. Upon the screen, there were a number of icons, arranged in five rows of five. With a quick gesture, she clicked on the double helix.

The image on the screen slid left, replaced by two series of green squares, one above the other, upon a deep-grey backdrop. The upper row was more detailed, for having miniatures of Armadillomon's first five forms on them; the sixth square was, however, blank. Between the two rows, a plain-colors white arrow pointed straight to the left, from Armadillomon to Ankylomon.

She looked to Junko, who likewise had readied her D3. As MegaAirdramon called 'seven', they held the devices up against one another. Both saw the screens change, both in that the other's partner's evolution-sequence filled the empty slots at the bottom, and also in that the white arrows were now aimed further upwards, to Shakkoumon. As well, a circular green button had popped up.

With a click on the brown-haired's Digivice's screen, the two Rookies spontaneously began glowing like that was perfectly normal; then, they went through the same motions as the other two Rookies had, and a single glowing figure began to take on concrete form. While they expanded, their humans backed away to give them room.

In a moment's time, the virtual angel stood in the arena, at its full size. MegaAirdramon looked appreciatively at the fused Ultimate, as did many of the people gathered in the spectators.

Shakkoumon stared apprehensively at the serpentine dragon, both minds unsure what they would do.

The wyvern howled the words, "Thunderous Rain!", and shot a small crackling sphere up towards the ceiling. A deafening noise and a flash of light so bright it was almost blinding to most of the spectators ensued, as the first lightning struck the dogu.

Ignoring the pain as well as they could, the angel focused their gaze on the dragon, eyes burning brighter as they began to announce the attack-program. They were cut off at the 'ic' part of Justice Beam, by another bolt.

Junko looked nervously at the unmoving statue. "Oh man, we're gonna lose this one, I know we are."

"Tough it out," called Sarah to the DNA Ultimate, her hands by her mouth to serve as an improvised megaphone. "You can beat these guys!"

From his other half, Gabumon felt a mood of sweet relief come. "You ready, partner?"

After the next strike of lightning, the angel remained motionless and silent. The next lightning strike, they braced themselves; the Ultimate remained upright even after the last thunder had hit them.

The silence that ensued was deep and breathless, and lingered until the wyvern next spoke, "Huh."

The angel glowered at them.

"I'll admit it," voiced the dragon, jovially. "We're legit impressed, kiddos. You're the first Ultimate who have ever," they stressed the word, "taken that attack. We can't take you two lightly, can we?"

Silence reigned, for another moment. The angel's two minds fretted at the smirk on the dragon's face. The brunette behind the Shakkoumon gave the Digivice's screen, the right-side button, a click, and the angel began to glow and metamorphose before the eyes of the crowd.

"And an unexpected move from the young contestants, ladies and gentlemen and non-binaries," the announcer's excited voice swept through the arena.

Yoshio scrutinized the werewolf that had ceased shining. _"A DNA Slide, huh... maybe their strategy is to go into Shakkoumon for the raw power and into WereGarurumon when they need the speed and mobility. Not a bad idea, but if I'm right, then we have just the trick to shut them down,"_ he looked to his scarlet-and-sky-blue D3, where the DNA Digivolution app was still on - now it presented two buttons, one that read DNA Slide Digivolution, one that read Partition.

He pressed the left-side one, and the Ultimate dragon began to glow once more, shrinking back down into the two Rookies. Both grinned, knowing what Yoshio had in mind. WereGarurumon ran, crossing ten metres of the distance within the first second; at the same instant, the man moved his other index finger calmly to adjust the arrow up to Patamon's Mega form - a small sprite of a MetalSeadramon.

Once the clock had ticked forward another second, the DNA werewolf had crossed thirty metres of the distance and the man was pressing the activation button of the Digivolution.

They'd quickly merged together again, and just as quickly assumed the form of the cyborg sea-serpent. Both combatants smirked, as their eyes met. The mirth on the sea-monster's face dimmed once he saw the werewolf continuing their charge.

Their confusion was momentary. _"The demon's aiming for our blind spot, huh?"_ voiced Patamon in their mind. Tsukaimon relayed that they should lure them in. "River of Power!" howled both of MetalSeadramon's voices, the nose-cannon flashing to life.

In less time than WereGarurumon had to mentally react to it, the blast enveloped them. MetalSeadramon mentally disengaging the laser, the duo focused on WereGarurumon.

Forcing themself to shoot their opponent a glare, the werewolf keeled over backwards, falling onto the ground. The lupine beast's body glowed, morphing into two In-Trainings. The sea-dragon grinned, feeling assured of their victory.

"You were great opponents," voiced MetalSeadramon to the four, a smug grin breaking out all over Junko's face, "and we expect that you would be even better if you can reach the sixth level. Until we can have a rematch, bye, bye."

Seeing his cue, Yoshio clicked for the Partitioning. The Mega glowed white for a moment, then shrank down into the two Rookies that had formed it. The human turning, the two animals flew after him out of the arena.

 


	2. The museum

_14:53, August 15, 2027_

_Tokyo, Edogawa, Best Of Both Worlds Restaurant, Manager's Office_

"You don't _have_ to hang around here," said Davis, jovially, to the preteen. The thirty-something man was regarding the bespectacled girl with amusement mixed with slight concern.

Asuka hummed cheerfully to herself, studying the holographic screen attentively.

"No, it's okay, Uncle Davis," responded the dark-haired girl in the tank-top and shorts, with a slight grin on her face. "I wanna see how you work, and it looks fun."

The business-suited man studied his non-blood niece briefly. "A shame she's too young for an internship," thought the former hero. He thought there was something more to it, but didn't want to pressure her into disclosing it. "Well, if you're sure," he cracked a grin, "I'm hardly going to turn down free help around here."

She responded by way of a brightening smile, and then she turned to look at the projected screen. Over it was a calender for the current month, arranged as a list of blocks, and various listed appointments. The Ichijouji girl read the entry for today, and read that there was somebody applying for a booking.

"Uncle, call me a Shellmon lost on a race-track if you want," voiced the girl, "but what's a booking?"

The short-haired man inspected the calendar briefly, to find what had incited the question. "It basically means that they're hiring the place for something, like a wedding or a company party- ah," he ahhed at noticing that there was an appointment in less than five minutes.

The door a bit ahead of the desk opened up. A Renamon stood in the doorway, then stepped aside to let a human man - garbed in a green suit, not of especially remarkable build or haircut by the standards of his species, looking in his early twenties - enter the office.

"Please," greeted the manager to the visitor, gesturing to the chair by his desk, "take a seat."

The blond quietly walked over to sit himself down in it, idly observing the young girl who was giving him a greeting wave of the hand. "Well, to just skip straight to it," started the man, with a note of unease in his voice, "my girlfriend and I want to tie the knot. As a minimum, I'll like to hold the reception here, and the wedding too if that can be arranged."

A pensive frown formed on his face. "That's certainly something we can accommodate, but I'll like to ask what species the lucky lady is," he paused, then hastily added, "I don't mean to sound biased, but our indoor facilities aren't really built to suit the biggest people around," he'd learned that lesson after VenomMyotismon.

The man gave a nod, the same happy-neutral look on his face.

 _"Keep it together,"_ he told himself, mentally stuttering. " _Yeah, this is Davis freaking Motomiya, a hero and a legend if ever there's been one, but he's just a man like yourself. Keep it together, you can handle this."_ "She's, erms, she's a MetalGreymon, if that'll affect anything, Mister Motomiya sir."

Elsewhere than where Asuka Ichijouji and her non-blood uncle were spending this early afternoon, another pair of people were spending their day with a different sort of activity.

In the Digital World, much was quiet, and only a few people were paying the museum region a visit at the moment. Among them, a human boy and a scrawny brat of a nine-year-old with a pair of goggles on his head, and a DemiVeemon.

In a large hall, in the wing dedicated to the legendary Digidestined and their many exploits over the years since the start of the millennium, there were only them.

They stood side by side, both with folded arms and defiant looks upon their faces. Behind them were two Digimon of the Mega level, each three times larger than the humans before them, and equally resembled dragons and knights. The dragon-knight on the right had a cannon-weapon pointed dead ahead at an unseen enemy, whereas the dragon-knight with the woman stood with raised arms and wrist-worn laser swords at the ready.

Around the pair, a number of paintings were arrayed upon the walls - each one depicted the figures of the statue, either the two dragon-knights or all four, in the heat of battle against some manner of foe, or else, standing triumphant over a battlefield filled of eggs.

"So this is," red-jacket boy quietly marveled, "what mom and dad did when they were young?"

The tiny blue wyvern looked around, undisguised interest in her eyes, at the art pieces. A twinge of dismay crossed her mind, at the fact that most of them were familiar sights already.

"Lookie over here, Akitoshi," spoke the dragon to her boy, dragging him off by the hand to a painting four paintings down the left wall from the statue of his parents and their partners. DemiVeemon held her hand out to the image hanging on the wall. The human youth studied the painting.

What it depicted was a battle fought in a wasteland beneath an orange sky. Of the combatants, Akitoshi recognized only his aunts Kari and Yolei; the other three - the humanoid plated in golden-and-grey metal, the pink-furred dragon and the white-dressed sword bearer who stood side by side against the third - were unknown to him.

"I dunno what I'm looking at," admitted the boy.

"It's from way back," exposited the azure wyvern, eager to share the trivia, "in two-thousand-nine. That's Valkyrimon, that's our Hawkmon's Mega form, and that's Magnadramon, Gatomon's Mega. The guy they're fighting is Reapermon."

"The boy listened, half-interested, walked over to another painting among that particular row. It depicted Dinobeemon, Angemon, Angewomon, and Shakkoumon, at the center of a Devimon army.

"What's this one from?" asked the human boy after a moment's inspection of it.

"Dunno," admitted the Veemon.


End file.
